Immigration system inaccessible, says report

THE IMMIGRATION system is inaccessible, lacks clarity and transparency, and fails to adhere to its own customer-service charters, a new report has found.

The report, Invisible Pathways: a critique of the Irish immigration system and how it can contribute to people becoming undocumented will be published by Crosscare’s Migrant Project (CMP) on Monday.

It points out the customer charter at the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) commits it to being contactable during normal office hours and responding to letters within five working days and says these “are consistently not adhered to”.

Crosscare is the social care agency of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.

Joe O’Brien, policy officer with the migrant project, said the report came “after four years of our and other NGOs’ frustration with the whole system. “The report is really an attempt to stand back and put some seams on all the problems in the system,” he said.

The most fundamental issues identified are lack of clear information about the different immigrant status options open to people; a lack of clarity and transparency in application processes and procedures; inadequate or no responses from the various agencies to people’s requests for information; non-adherence to customer charters and a lack of planning, consultation and dissemination of immigration policy and procedure changes. “There is a real lack of information,” said Mr O’Brien. He said even some of the most basic information was not available online and was almost impossible to access by phone or mail.

The report says problems with getting clear information was “one of the main reasons why people come to CMP’s information and advocacy service”.

The report contains numerous case studies of immigrants who have come to the migrant project for help negotiating the system, many who have lost their “documented status” due to an inability to get the information they need to renew or change it.

“It is really disillusioning for people when they make numerous attempts to get information and they turn up again and again trying to present themselves and abide by the procedures and then find themselves having fallen out of the system through no fault of their own,” said Mr O’Brien.

The report makes 90 recommendations which can be categorised as making the various immigrant status options more visible and accessible; making status pathways more defined and supported; instigating policy and procedure changes more carefully and improving interaction with the immigrant – ie responding to calls and letters.